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"Once" is a somewhat familiar tale about, generally speaking, two people falling in love. The film does not cover much new ground, but it stumbles backward into something so magic and captivating. "Guy" is a street musician and vacuum repair man. "Girl" sells flowers on the street. The two form a bond over their mutual love of music. The film received much critical acclaim, but is it deserved? My answer: absolutely. Though not necessarily for the reasons you'd expect.

Once in a great while (pun intended), a film captures something completely honest and real. Occasionally it's intentional, but often it's blind luck. Capturing this purity is extremely difficult to do in a work of fiction; when we watch films that star recognizable actors, we bring a certain baggage to the experience. We have our assumptions and past judgments to bear on the new project. This is not necessarily a good thing, but we do it mostly unconsciously. In other words, we've come to expect certain things from Matt Damon, Daniel Day-Lewis, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez (loosely included as an "actor"), George Clooney, Helen Mirren, and so forth.

In documentaries, on the other hand, a filmmaker can stumble across something so universal because there are no scripts and actors. A good example of this is the film "King of Kong." What likely began as a simple film about a man obsessed with Donkey Kong morphed and changed into an epic, real-life battle of good versus evil. Capturing this purity is easier in documentary format.

But isn't "Once" a work of fiction? Well, kind of.

Thankfully, "Once" does not include a single recognizable face. This wasn't supposed to be so, as the lead role of Guy (Glen Hansard) was originally meant to be played by Cillian Murphy, an actor familiar from the most recent Batman, among other films. But Murphy turned down the role after he learned the role of Girl would be played by Marketa Irglova, a sixteen-year-old music prodigy with no acting experience. When Cillian Murphy backed out, Hansard was convinced to take the role.

In the end, this was a stroke of luck that resulted in the brilliance of "Once." While "Once" is considered a work of fiction, I submit that it is just as much a documentary. The characters of Guy and Girl slowly fall in love over the course of the film. As it turns out, Hansard and Irglova, over the course of shooting the film, were in fact falling in love in real life. The purity and realness of their connection pops off the screen.

While Irglova was only 17 at the time of shooting, Hansard waited until she was of consenting age to pursue a relationship with her. But it's all there on screen. The connection between the two is palpable. The film wouldn't have been so striking with two or even one recognizable actor. In this sense, "Once" is both a work of fiction and a documentary about two musicians falling for each other. That is what makes "Once" successful, and why it turns a familiar tale into something that feels new and uniquely special.

Learn more about this author, Sean Curtis.
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